Proverbs 20:4, Away With Futile Excuses!

December 24, Proverbs 20:4

Matt. 25:24-30; Rom. 13:11-12 “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”

Away With Futile Excuses!

Here is a parable as well as a proverb. Solomon frequently reminds us of the sluggard and his tragic end. This is the evil of sacrificing duty for convenience. We are made for eternity, and all are inescapably moving to our destiny. The plowing of today is followed by the harvest of tomorrow. If we fail in the plowing, we will fail in the reaping.

1. Indolence breeds Insolvency (4a). The Cold means the beginning of winter. In the Middle East this is during rainy season. Plowing is cold, muddy work, but if one misses the right season for planting he will reap nothing at harvest (Eccl. 11:4). To hide in laziness from or because of cold is to court insolvency. How despicable, then, a lazy beggar is! “A lazy man is the thief’s brother, and the devil’s footman.” Though lazy, he is prepared to commit any evil that may come his way. Perhaps once a successful, even educated man, but now, behold, he’s a beggar! Observe the parable (Mt. 25:3-10)! How many are hindered in their service for God because of cold hearts? Melanchthon said, “Shrinking from the cold is the same as avoiding the cross.” We give the leftovers of our effort to God, while our full energy is devoted to the world and self-interest. A little cold keeps us from the house of God. The church is cold. No one speaks to us or inquires after us. We cannot work, either because it is too mean or too important, or the season too early or too late, the temperature too hot or too cold. “A lazy boy and a warm bed are hard to part.” What excuses we make for ourselves! Can we wonder that we perish for lack of food? A lazy spirit is a losing spirit. It loses time, profit, reputation, everything; to remain such, is also to be in danger of the greatest loss of all, losing one’s soul!

2. Indolence begets Inconsistency (4b). He refuses to accept the consequences of his sloth, and expects others to feed him. What folly (2 Thes. 3:10)! “Plough or not plough, you must pay the rent.” If work does not pay, idleness certainly will not. Behold, the sluggard must beg in harvest, but without success. There is none to pity his laziness (Eccl. 4:5). In an accepted time he would not sow. Now he cries for help from the labours of others, but is sent away empty. There is a time to sow and a time to reap. “Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep” (B. Franklin). This is the law of life now, but also of the life to come. Missed opportunity is lost opportunity. How inconsistent to expect otherwise! We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). Late repentance will then avail nothing (Lu. 16:24). Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Heb. 3:7-8).

Where the tree falls there it lies;
So man departs to heav’n or hell
Fix’d in the state wherein he dies (I. Watts).

Thought: “His soul was his only real treasure and now it is lost” (Arnot).

Prayer: Lord, that I might wear out, not rust out.